Yup! At the time I lived on the London-Kent border and was a regular visitor to Brands in the late '60s/early 70's, watching Group Six, Formula 5000 and other exciting race series. On that day I was in my usual spot at the top of Druids, drenched but uncaring as I watched the gloriously over-engined cars tiptoeing and fishtailing round the hairpin. Rodriguez was incredible, how he kept that 917 pointing (most of the time!) in the right direction amazed a lot of spectators, me included.
Brands to me is one of the greatest tracks in the country and more recently I had the incredible experience of being driven round for a few laps in a Cobra Daytona and a Ford GT40 - both replicas but extremely close ones. Batting down the start/finish straight at full chat and feeling the car go light as it flew over the apex into Paddock was one of the greatest moments of my life without doubt.
Hi Gromit, good to hear from someone else who was present on the day. I still have the colour slides that I took on the day although due to limited film speeds of the time and the appalling weather photography after about 2 o'clock was largely a waste of time.
I also visited Brands as often as possible in the period from mid 60s to early 70s but living some 130 miles away, 2 or 3 times a year was about as often as I could manage.
I always thought that Brands was
the best circuit in the country, probably because it wasn't just another disused airfield and as a result contained noticeable gradients and a variety of corners.
(Wasn't it at the next race at Spa that Rodriguez qualified on pole at an
average speed of 157mph, an almost unbelievable feat at the time. That must have been something to see).
Happy days, Racman